Carol Moseley Braun

Carol Moseley Braun (16 August 1947-) was a member of the US Senate from Illinois (D) from 3 January 1993 to 3 January 1999, succeeding Alan Dixon and preceding Peter Fitzgerald. She was the first African-American senator from the Democratic Party, as well as the first female to defeat an incumbent Senator in an election.

Biography
Carol Moseley was born in Chicago, Illinois on 16 August 1947, and she graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago Law School. She worked as an attorney and a prosecutor at the US District Attorney's office in Chicago during the 1970s, and she served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1979 to 1988, when she was elected Recorder of Deeds for Cook County. In 1992, she was elected to the US Senate, the first African-American woman and the first African-American Democrat to do so. She was a centrist, voting for the 1993 budget package and against the 1996 welfare reforms; she also supported a balanced budget amendment and the placement of a nuclear spent fuel storage facility in Nevada. Her conservative economic views did not carry over to her social views, however; she was strongly pro-choice, opposed the death penalty, supported gun control, supported same-sex marriage, and opposed the usage of the Confederate flag in the USA. She was later accused of corruption, and Bill Clinton had her serve as Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa from 1999 to 2001. In 2010, she failed in her run for Mayor of Chicago, with Rahm Emanuel defeating her.